Mick Schumacher wasn’t optimistic Friday after making his first qualifying run on an oval track.

“Hopefully we won’t be starting too far in the back,” the former Formula One driver said of Saturday’s Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway, the second race of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.

Schumacher (photo, top) couldn’t judge how his two-lap average of 173.667 mph would stack up against the field because he had been the first car to qualify. Typically, those who go first don’t enjoy enough tire rubber on the track to deliver elite results.

Plus, Schumacher admittedly is a series rookie who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

But for the next 20 minutes or so, six drivers tried to match Schumacher’s speed and couldn’t. It wasn’t until the eighth qualifier, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate Graham Rahal, bested him by a slight margin (Rahal’s speed was 173.993). The rest of the way, only Team Penske drivers David Malukas (175.383) and Josef Newgarden (174.540), two of the best short-oval drivers in recent years, could push Schumacher deeper on the starting grid.

Mick Schumacher

By the time the tire rubber settled, Schumacher (photo, above) and his No. 47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda had the fourth-fastest speed, and RLL had secured both starting positions on the second row. For Rahal, it was his highest starting position on an oval since earning the same spot for the 2012 race at Texas Motor Speedway.

“That’s a big step,” Rahal said of the team’s improvement in oval performance. “We knew that short ovals are our Achilles’ heel – that’s got to get better.”

It did Friday, and Schumacher delivered the proof as a stunning top-four qualifier.

“I thought Mick did a top-tier job,” Rahal said. “He’s silky smooth with his feet, way smoother than me or Louis (Foster). That’s a big benefit.”

Schumacher wasn’t ready to say he enjoyed his first day on the 1-mile desert track that the likes of A.J. Foyt, Al and Bobby Unser and Tom Sneva made famous, but he’s ready to give one of these round-and-rounds a full go in Saturday’s race (3 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio, powered by OnlyBulls).

“It’s interesting,” the 26-year-old German said in response to short ovals being fun to drive. “I do like the whole variable of corners and stuff. In its own way, it’s special and unique.

“I think Graham was the first one to tell me – and a lot of people have told me – when the car is good, oval racing is fun, and it’s not good when (the car) is real bad. That we can agree upon.”